One stitch makes a difference and a colorful piece of art at the same time.

That’s a message the High Desert Quilt Guild relayed on Thursday to the Ridgecrest Exchange Club as two of its members spoke about the organization.

Linda Bego and Leslie Brown both spoke about their organization, which has been around for nearly 23 years, and some of the impacts it has had on the Indian Wells Valley.

“One of the things we find really important is helping with the community,” said Linda Bego, the organization’s president.

Part of the program’s outreach is the Wounded Warriors Program, the High Desert Women’s Center’s shelter and other organizations.

“We have given a minimum of 100 quilts every year to the Wounded Warrior Hospital, and to the Women’s Shelter and regional Family Resource Center,” Bego said.

Whether the group’s members produce quilts or Christmas stockings for the community, it’s goal is to do outreach.

“We’ve done stockings for children at Christmas and have sent quilts to the military hospitals in Afghanistan and Iraq, and helped with Hurricane Katrina,” Bego said.

She said one of the things the club finds with its members is that “they are really very generous.”

Brown, the organization’s outreach chair, said that the Quilt Guild works closely with the Family Resource Center on Downs Street.

“Every other month I take them quilts, receiving cloths, bibs or anything that our members are willing to make and donate,” Brown said.

The organization has about 100 members currently, and meets the first Thursday of every month (barring religious holidays) at Grace Lutheran Fellowship Hall.

In addition, the guild has a “stitch-in” every third Saturday, where members cut out fabrics, make quilts and “do everything we can to make things better.”

“We are fortunate to meet there because facilities are very expensive,” Bego said.

As a 501(4)c nonprofit, the organization doesn’t have the luxury of writing off taxes. Most of its revenue instead comes from its membership and from its bi-annual Quilt Fair held at the Desert Empire Fairgrounds.

The thing with working with an area like the Family Resource Center is the services it offers to the community.

“They teach classes or help the family is struggling or had a fire or any other trauma,” Brown said. “They teach how to be good parents and put them through the pace of all the different classes offered.”

She said if a family has gone through a tragedy, the Family Resource Center pulls from what the Quilt Guild has donated.

Page 2 of 2 - One case involved a family who lost everything following a December fire at the Town and Country Mobile Home Park. Brown said that the Quilt Guild’s donation allowed the Family Resource Center to take quilts to the children of that family.

“We had a lot of good feedback after the children were given stockings after having lost everything in the fire,” Brown said.

Bego said that working with the Wounded Warriors was a particular blessing for the guild.

“We’ve been very fortunate in that the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society comes to pick up the blankets and deliver them to hospitals, as that saves us a lot of expense,” Bego said.

Bego added that quilts have managed to touch some of the veterans.

“One of the soldiers that had just been released from the hospital and needed assistance going back into society was not talking,” Bego said.

Then the quilts came from the Guild.

“He saw one that reminded him of the one that his grandmother had made and really wanted,” Bego said. “He knew that the quilts would be disturbed, but they’re not supposed to ask for a specific one, but he asked if he could have that quilt. That’s how he started speaking.”

Members come from all walks of life, Bego said.

“We’re proud of the caliber of people that are in the guild, from the newbie to the old-timer that learned at her great-grandmother’s knee,” Bego said. “They just continue to generously give to the community, and I think it helps the children, the adults and the service members and their families.”